Guardian, people don't read you for more of the same corporate-funded, neo-liberal, centrist propaganda as everyone else. This isn't about individual actions if we don't have the sustainable public infrastructure to work with. If you give us a bunch of highways and strip malls, wdy expect?
stop selling the lie that the individual just has to follow some slight lifestyle change to save humanity from destruction. We need a collective change of the entire societal system.
No mention of the damaging environmental effects of crypto. No mention of the massive amounts of energy (and water) required to fuel the blockchain. Hmm 🤔
old 1970s frig electric usage was measured and it was barely different from energy star frig. Many energy stars are a waste of money that do not do much to change status quo but cost consumers a whole lot more for less performance. Dont even get me started on heat pumps that only last about 10yrs!
let me be the first to call BS on this unsubstantiated claim with only a meme to back it up. But go ahead use a 70s fridge, I'm sure your family will love it... Anyways, no one cares, this is the weirdest thing to get angry over.
There are many videos on youtube that prove this about refrigerators. And I have a furnace on my 1st floor thats 20yrs old still going strong and 2 heat pumps on 2nd 3rd floor that have been replaced twice, and these are supposedly high quality Tranes, $7K each
My apartment from 1992-2000 had a fridge in it from the 1940s. It worked just fine. Recently, that same apartment was up for rent, and I saw that same fridge in the updated photos. The entire place has been updated and costs 4x as much, but the still kicking appliances are considered "retro."
I just think you're really comparing apples and oranges, the specs on a 70s fridge i think are much less compared to a modern fridge. Just like cars, houses, and phones, the technology has advanced a lot over the past 50 years and people expect a lot more out of their appliances and.
I for one appreciate the reduction of lead, asbestos, and other hazardous chemicals in products compared to back then. However, I must admit you're absolutely right about the planned-obsolescence in the majority todays products.
Please ignore anybody who tells you what you, personally, can do to reduce your carbon footprint unless their first piece of advice is "become part of the environmental movement pressuring governments and industry to make major systemic changes to reduce carbon emissions."
Great thoughts overall. I always bring a reusable canvas bag to grocery shops, but I've yet to see a single other person do that, I must look like a total weirdo to other people here in Tucson 😄
What we really need is government rewarding citizens for things like divesting from private car ownership. Governments with enough self respect to wean society off superfluous consumerism engineered merely to prop up corporate profits and shareholder 'value' at any cost to our environment, to us.
We can't, as individuals, make any impact if big corporations continue to pollute. Stop blaming us, stop telling us we aren't doing enough. Citizens are NOT the problem here.
Comments
Individualising the issue is a literal big oil strategy for avoiding decarbonising regulations.
I don't know if you've ever received money from the fossil fuel industry, but you are doing their job regardless.
https://www.oxfam.org/en/press-releases/billionaires-emit-more-carbon-pollution-90-minutes-average-person-does-lifetime
people who 'fly.
and there are very few of them
and enough of them to make a serious refunded carbon tax not even possible to be discussed, even in the tax policy crazy USA.
because it would 'bust the planes'
just as Trump said in the first 2020 debate.
but never reminded or some perhaps ever informed on not just the persistency of Co2 but the 20 plus year ocean latency.
not the ocean inertia, even if no tipping points, feedbacks or aerosol cooling effect also come into play.
it's not a hoax !
The Guardian
January 30, 2025
Everyone Has An Impact
by Madeleine Aggeler